How to achieve resource use efficiency in integrated food and biobased value chains?

Abstract

This publication contains a vision, formulated by research experts in food and biobased production, on how to achieve increased efficient and effective use of available resources during the production and (re)processing of biomass for food and biobased products, feed and energy. This paper briefly elaborates on the transition to a sustainable bio-economy (see graph 1), focusing on the needs and requirements from a value chain perspective. A growing number of representatives from scientific, governmental, political, business and societal organisations consider the transition from a fossil fuelled economy to a bio-economy as a ‘conditio sine qua non’ for a competitive low-carbon growth model. Using renewable resources is essential for increasing the sustainability of the bio-economy and for the mitigation of global warming. The urgency of this transition was recently expressed at the European Bio-economy Stakeholder Conference in Utrecht. Stakeholders from large and small companies, NGOs, associations and national and regional governments from 30 European countries phrased this in their concluding ‘Manifesto’: “We regard the transition to a sustainable and circular bio-economy as inevitable”.1) By expressing this vision on how to achieve resource use efficiency in integrated food and biobased value chains, Wageningen Food & Biobased Research wants to engage into a constructive debate with stakeholders from the private and public sector that all have an interest in increasing the sustainability of the bio-economy. One of the objectives of this debate will be to assess how scientific research can support and contribute to the transition process to achieve a more efficient and effective use of the available resources.